Zimbabwe election should be re-run, say African observers

Zimbabwe's one-candidate presidential election was not free and fair and
should be held again, a group of African observers monitoring the ballot has
said.

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Voters check the initial vote in the run-off election at a polling
station in HararePhoto: EPA

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'MDC' is painted over Mugabe postersPhoto: GETTY

Louis Weston in Harare

10:45AM BST 29 Jun 2008

The denunciation from Pan-African parliament monitors came after President Robert Mugabe said he was sure of "a sweeping victory" in Friday's poll, held in defiance of international opinion and dismissed by much of the world as a sham.

Mr Mugabe is expected to make a public appearance later today to hail his triumph.

But the head of the Pan-African parliament observer mission said the result should not be allowed to stand.

"The current atmosphere prevailing in the country did not give rise to conditions for the holding of free and fair democratic elections. These elections were not free and fair," said Marwick Khumalo.

In an attempt to break the deadlock, Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai last night raised the possibility of a power-sharing deal with Mr Mugabe.

In a major concession, Mr Tsvangirai said it was "not inconceivable" that, with himself as executive prime minister, Mr Mugabe could remain as a ceremonial president.

His Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would share power with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party in such a government.

"It's being considered within our structures," said Mr Tsvangirai, in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph - his first since Friday's election, which he decided to boycott.

"The broad principle is how can the two parties coexist, for a short duration, through a transition that will allow us to make a new constitution and a fresh election. I don't think it's inconceivable for such an arrangement to include him, depending, of course, on the details of what is being proposed and what are the arrangements."

The move could open the way to talks between the two sides when today, as expected, Mr Mugabe declares himself the victor in Friday's presidential election run-off.

Mr Tsvangirai withdrew from the contest following a campaign of murder and violence against his supporters.

As votes were tallied across Zimbabwe officials said that with results in from two thirds of polling stations, a "landslide victory" for Mr Mugabe was now anticipated.

Gangs of Zanu-PF members began to unleash punishment against those who had failed to vote, in a campaign known as Operation Red Finger - the colour of the ink used to mark the fingers of those who had voted.

President George W Bush said that the US would press for a UN arms embargo on Zimbabwe and a travel ban and financial penalties on regime officials. He declared Friday's election a "sham".

Mr Mugabe insisted there had been a record election turnout - though this was flatly denied by independent African observers, who said the numbers who voted were "very, very low". He said he would fly to Egypt for tomorrow's African Union summit but branded the growing chorus of doubts from Zimbabwe's neighbours and other African states as "stupidity".

Despite the onslaught from Mr Mugabe's thugs, and Mr Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the election, some polling stations said more people had voted for him than for Mr Mugabe.

"I find that very humbling," said Mr Tsvangirai. "There are people who said 'I cannot countenance voting for Mr Mugabe, so I will vote for Tsvangirai in spite of the fact that the vote is invalid because he pulled out'. Even in places where the intimidation has been intense, there has been real defiance."

Mr Tsvangirai, 56, was speaking from the Dutch embassy in Harare's eastern suburbs, where he has been since announcing he was boycotting the poll, but said he would not go into exile.

Mr Mugabe, he said, was "a man who in his imagination would like to die in office, like some of the nationalist leaders who were deputy to him.

"We have always said he needs to occupy higher moral ground that what he has degenerated into, because he is the founding president of the republic and as the founding father of the nation he must behave as such.

"Unfortunately he has behaved in a manner which has undermined that legacy. The problem is that he is resisting transfer of power. He is not disputing the fact that March 29 produced a certain result which reflected the will of the people, but he cannot accept transfer of power himself."

The opposition now hopes that international pressure will force Mr Mugabe to make concessions.

"The majority of the African states find the situation in Zimbabwe unacceptable," said Mr Tsvangirai. "I think there's a growing chorus about condemning what happened on Friday."

Reports in Zimbabwe have suggested that one Zanu-PF faction is seeking to bring in Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former security minister who oversaw the massacre of 20,000 people in Matabeleland in the 1980s, to succeed Mr Mugabe as head of state. Ahead of negotiations, Mr Tsvangirai said he could not rule out "any particular individual as unacceptable". Mr Mugabe launched a scathing attack on other African governments which have questioned the legitimacy of Friday's Â­election.

"Even today we have voices [in the AU] saying we should stop our elections and violate our own laws," he said at a rally near Harare. "What stupidity is that? If there are proposals from the opposition in good spirit we will listen. But not being dictated to by outsiders, not even the AU."

And, referring to the dubious democratic record of many other African Union leaders, he added: "I want to see who will point that finger at me, and I want to see if it's clean." An attempt at the UN to issue an outright condemnation of Zimbabwe was blocked on Friday night by South Africa, resulting in a more anodyne declaration of "regret that the elections went ahead in these circumstances."

South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki has resisted attempts to put pressure on Mr Mugabe, whom he regards as a hero of the movement against colonialism.

But yesterday Jacob Zuma, the head of South Africa's African National Congress, said the situation in Zimbabwe was "extremely distressing".

"We reiterate that the situation is now out of control," he said in Johannesburg, in a rare direct criticism of Mr Mugabe from a South African leader. "Nothing short of a negotiated political arrangement will get Zimbabwe out of the conflict it has been plunged into."

President Bush denounced Mr Mugabe's government as "illegitimate", slammed the tyrant's "blatant disregard" for democracy and human rights and dismissed Friday's election as a "sham".

He instructed officials to develop American penalties against Zimbabwe's government and its supporters.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US plans to introduce a UN resolution seeking tough action against Zimbabwe to send "a strong message of deterrence" to the Mugabe government.

Western diplomats at the UN began moves for a major African figure, possibly Kofi Annan, to be appointed as an international envoy to Zimbabwe, potentially supplanting Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, who has been widely condemned for his ineffectiveness as official mediator on behalf of neighbouring countries.

One said: "We talk to the South Africans endlessly but we just hear rants about colonialism. They don't care that Mugabe is damaging the reputation of Africa - for them it's all about solidarity. They've done nothing. It's pathetic."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged Mr Mbeki not to recognise the re-election of Mr Mugabe as president and, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, said South Africa should blockade Zimbabwe to make Mr Mugabe step down.

"The country already is virtually on its knees, it would take very little pressure to make them see sense," he said.

"Clearly the election was not free and fair, and I just hope that every decent government will declare Mr Mugabe illegitimately elected and that his government is unacceptable," said the 76-year old cleric.

"I hope that every government will do that including our own. There is no way in which you could lend legitimacy to something that is a complete charade."

He said Mr Mugabe should be banned from the AU meeting and that South Africa should be taking far tougher measures.

"This is a landlocked country which relies almost exclusively on South Africa and if Air Zimbabwe is not allowed to overfly its neighbouring countries it's going to be virtually grounded," he said. "They won't survive a siege of that kind for very long."

Additional reporting by Stephen Bevan in Pretoria and Philip Sherwell in New York